by V. Theia
Not even Ajax. The one person who’d always been his confident. But once his brother moved back to Colorado, he suspected the tides of loyalty had changed.
Rex felt abandoned and betrayed.
“They’re both upset, Rex. You could go a little easier on them.”
Grown ass men and the bitch wanted him to go easy on them?
“Say that when you have to move in with your sister ‘cause we can’t afford all the fucking bonbons you eat.” He snapped nastily, even as she flinched, he felt nothing. “Leave me alone, Della, so I can pick up their fuckin’ messes yet again.”
“You know, one day, Rex, you’re gonna turn around and none of us will be here, you will have chased us all off with that vicious temper of yours.” She turned on her rotund hide and left his office.
Her hurt feelings were the least of his problems.
After putting a call through to the Russian and coming up empty there, he slammed down his burner cell, cracking it in two. The bratva could probably sense Rex had no more leverage against the MC and he reasoned their partnership was dissolving.
Fuck ‘em. He hated those commie fucks anyway, he could get drugs anywhere, didn’t need those fools.
He had money stashed away. He wasn’t hurting for cash, not yet anyway, but this clusterfuck put a dent in his plans he could do without.
His first and only objection was Rider. He knew if he took him out of action, the club would fall to Hawk and that unstable bastard wouldn’t want the gavel. Leaving plenty of room for Rex.
Two knocks on the door. “Someone to see you, boss.”
If this was more bad news, he was putting a bullet in the next fucker to walk through his door. “Come.” He called out. His man walked through first but it was the young kid striding in behind him that gave Rex pause.
Early twenties. Piercings and a mohawk hairstyle. He was also cocksure with that swagger all young men had like they thought they were god’s gift. Little punks didn’t know they were born.
What stood out was the Renegade Souls prospect vest he wore beneath his leather jacket, the patch identified him for being from the Colorado chapter.
“You pat him down?”
“Yeah, boss. He ain’t carrying shit.”
He knew that face and when he thought about it, Rex placed the kid in Ty’s club here in Austin. Why then was he wearing Rider’s patch?
“What the fuck do you want? If you’ve brought a message from that nephew of mine…”
“I haven’t.”
“Spit it out.”
“I thought you could do with my help.”
Rex scoffed. Balls on this lanky piece of piss. He’d give him props for rocking up to his mansion steps if nothing else. Not many approached Rex, fearing his wrath.
“And what help do you think I need, kid?”
“Getting rid of Rider Marinos.”
Rex and his man became silent. Eerily silent. The air in the office shifted.
“You walk in here wearing a Colorado patch and you offer to help me get rid of your prez? How fuckin’ dumb you think I am?” His man pulled out his weapon, aimed, waiting for the signal.
The young kid didn’t so much as flinch. He stuck his thumbs in his denim pockets and met Rex’s stare head on like he wasn’t afraid of dying at all.
Crazy fuck.
“That’s what I said.”
Rex waited.
“They sent me here, to spy on you. To make good with you like I wanna work for you, all the while I’d be taking back what I know to them, to fuck you up.”
Funny, how it didn’t come as a surprise to Rex. It didn’t stop the sharp, short bubble of his volcanic blood though. “They think I’m one of Rider’s boys. That I’d do anything for him. They’d couldn’t be more wrong. Wanna bury him. I wanna bury all of ‘em.”
Interesting. Rex wasn’t saying he believed the boy. But his straight face and death-like voice was either Oscar worthy or he truly did hate Rider.
“And why the fuck would one of Rider’s crew hate him so much he’d bring this shit to me?”
“Cause I want ‘em all to think I’m working for them, taking info back about you. All the while I’m playing nice there, making out like I’m one happy motherfucker being the errand boy. I wanna help you bring him down. Bring them down.” This last sentence was delivered through clenched teeth and Rex smiled until his own molars showed.
Mouthy fuck had balls, give him that.
“Why you got it in for your prez?”
“Asshole is no prez of mine. Just made them think I was their yes boy.”
“You were one of Ty’s boys?”
“Yeah, I put my transfer in last summer. Asshole’s got it coming to him. He thinks he owns the damn world.”
“What’s stopping me from putting a bullet in you right now? Better yet, I could hand you to Rider, and let that fool know what kind of men he has in his club.”
The boy was still not fazed.
Dumb as a rock.
But Rex was intrigued.
The other man rolled a shoulder and gestured with a tip of his head, ignorant of the fact a gun was still trained on him. “You could, but I’m your best option for getting the mother chapter back under your control while they don’t suspect a thing. They trust me.” His stance said he was confident in what he was saying, even under pressure.
Rex remained silent, exchanged glances with his right-hand man who shrugged.
“I asked you why.”
“You once did business with Hades, remember him?”
He did. The most psychotically perceptive bastard Rex had ever met. They’d done some mutually beneficial business together while he reigned the Raging Rebels. Shame there wasn’t more club presidents like him out there.
“Rider had him killed. They’re tight lipped on the details, but I know it was someone in that club.”
Old news. Rex arched his brow, telling him silently to get on with it.
“Hades was my half-brother. I want those assholes to pay in the worst possible way.”
Shock coated Rex’s tongue as he sat forward and rested both latched hands on the desk, observing this guy and the fury burning up his eyes.
Well, well. For the first time that day he felt his bones relaxing and his lips peeled over his teeth.
Maybe he’d found the fox in the chicken coop, finally.
“Take a seat. Shotgun will fetch you a drink.” The guy sat. “What did you say your name was?”
He leaned over Rex’s desk and offered his hand. “Juicy, sir. They call me Juicy.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Living life one kiss at a time.” - Reaper
Getting ready for a date with Reaper. It was no big deal.
What on earth was she saying? It was a big-freaking-deal. The biggest of all the deals that ever was, and Paige was having a slight out of body panic attack while she waited to hear the familiar roar of his bike.
Was it eagerness that she’d been dressed for an hour? She smoothed a hand down the long curtains of her hair hanging down either side of her face in glossy strands, both blonde and pink intermingling with every head shake.
She looked down at the dress she’d finally chosen to wear and felt a squeeze of doubt.
Was it too showy?
She’d neglected to even ask Reaper where they were going.
Maybe he was thinking a drive-thru.
In which case she was so overdressed, but she’d loved the shimmering silver bodycon dress with the plunging back only held up by thin spaghetti straps. It was probably the most daring piece of clothing she owned, beside her underwear collection which was borderline intervention worthy at this stage.
Looking at herself in the mirror, trying to swallow the chirping nerves taking flight inside her ribcage, she smiled. Yeah, she looked alright. As long as the biker at least gasped a little it would all be worth it. As it was, the dress was so tight she might not be able to eat a thing.
Oh god. He was here! Paige abo
ut fell out of her four-inch shoes in her haste to get to the door.
Nothing prepared Paige for the first look at him in tailored gray pants, a light blue shirt, open at the collar to show a sprinkling of pale chest hair. He wore his usual leather jacket and boots, but the skull cap was missing, and the sight of him standing so tall and lean with his blond hair combed back and tied at his nape, Paige’s breath got stuck somewhere between tongue and lungs.
She was gonna faint. Yep, right there in the doorway, fainting was about to happen.
Of course, it didn’t, mainly because Reaper didn’t give her a chance to swoon. What with him growling, stepping forward and his tongue plunged into her mouth, stealing all her air, and he kissed her senseless until she drowned in the gravity of him.
The way his gaze fucked her; Paige could almost imagine another lifetime when she was the object of those heated stares until she felt charred right down to her pointed heels. His stare, as it went on, felt familiar like nothing else had in a long time, brand new and beautiful all at once.
His cologne filled her chest. Male and strong. Rich and clean, she almost listed to the side to press her nose into the hollow of his neck to take the biggest whiff of him. She just bet he’d push back his head and let her too. But if she started sniffing Reaper now she had a feeling she wouldn’t stop, and she’d poured herself into this dress for a reason and it wasn’t to strip it off minutes later in her hallway.
The silence and desire swirling between them compounded, breath after labored breath.
“Shall we go?” She asked finally.
He palmed her hand in his much bigger one, instantly she warmed, then he took the house keys from her and locked up.
“You didn’t tell me where we were going.”
“An Italian place over in Fort Springs.”
“Ohh. I love Italian.” She beamed and felt his hand squeeze hers. He gave her a quiet. “I know.”
A little of her excitement dampened when they’d climbed down the stairs leading away from her apartment to face a huge truck. One of those fancy F-150’s if she was correct. The bodywork practically gleamed.
“Where’s your motorcycle?”
“I left it back at the club. Didn’t think you’d want to climb on the back if you’d worn something pretty, shit gets messy.” His eyes raked and Paige’s skin burst into gooseflesh. “But I was wrong. You look stunning.”
“Thank you.” she told him as he opened the door and helped to lift her in with his hands on her waist. “I’ll admit I was looking forward to riding on the back of your bike. I’ve never been on one before.”
She watched him climb in behind the wheel and face her, his face did a funny scrunch before it flattened out to his usual unreadable mask. It was one of those times she wondered why he always seemed like he was carrying a million secrets around with him.
Maybe in time he’d open up.
After all, four years later here they were on their first date! Give it four more and they might progress to a second. Paige held in her giggle as he started up the truck.
His hand came out and covered her thigh above her knee.
Butterflies attacked her belly.
He kept it there the whole way across town.
Paige was about ready to crawl across the console and lick him to death and ask for a good pounding by the time he parallel parked and turned off the engine. She couldn’t breathe through all the lust assaulting her from every which way she turned.
One hand on her knee was all it took for her to feel insanely hot.
The same happened when he helped her out of the truck and placed a hand right at the base of her spine where it was hottest. His tapered fingers moved the material of her dress a little to place right over her bare skin.
“You take my breath away, baby.” He whispered in her ear right after he gave his name to the hostess. Renner. How had she never known his surname in all this time? It was when they were seated in a quiet corner table that she asked. “I feel silly that I only just realized I don’t know your real name.”
The restaurant was amazingly beautiful. Everything she loved, prettiness on the tables, soft music playing and a heaping basket of bread their waiter brought over the moment they were seated, but it was the man in front of her who captivated every ounce of Paige’s attention.
His brow folded in briefly, he got that look again, as if he were debating what he could or couldn’t tell her.
“Jud,” he said eventually. “But everyone calls me Reaper nowadays.” His tone suggested he wanted her to only call him Reaper and it gave her pause until she looked over at him and found his eyes attached to her face. They were oozing lust.
Oh, wow.
Her brain let go of all her unanswered questions about him for now.
All she wanted to do in that moment was spend time with Reaper. To look across the table through the flickering candlelight and know that he was already looking right at her.
“I’m glad we’re doing this,” she smiled. “But…was it your fevered migraine pain that made you decide you wanted to date me? It’s not too late to back out.” Selecting a seeded hunk of bread, she first inhaled its yeasty goodness then Paige tore small pieces of it and nibbled. If there was one thing on this earth she loved more than … probably the man in front of her … it was bread. She dipped it in the butter and chewed carefully while Reaper watched her.
“Wasn’t it me who was knuckle-deep in your pussy just earlier?”
She choked so bad she gulped a full glass of water in an instant.
“Jesus, Reaper. Quiet, anyone can hear you.”
Flabbergasted. Turned on. So damn turned on.
“Answer, baby.”
Jesus, who was this man calling her baby all of a sudden? She couldn’t figure his one-eighty flip at all and while he held the basket of carbs out to her, her fingers selecting a salted crusty roll this time, she knew she didn’t much care for why he wanted her suddenly. He was here. She was here and his wicked tongue touching the corner of his mouth while he waited for her answer, drove her wild.
“You know fine well it was you under my skirt.”
“And you stayed wet all day didn’t you?”
God. Luckily this time she wasn’t mid chew, but her thighs began to itch and clutch together to stop that little ache at the juncture.
She flicked her gaze through her lashes and blushed feeling his hot stare, leaned back in his seat dancing fingertips over the tines of the fork laid on the table.
“You’re a wicked boy.”
He smirked.
“Oh. I was so excited for tonight,” she watched him smile later as their dessert plates were cleared away. “That I forgot to tell you what’s happening at work.”
“Tell me what’s happening at work, baby.” He indulged; his own smile played on his face.
About halfway through dinner he’d grunted his Reaper grunt and climbed to his feet and brought his chair halfway around the table closer to her. She’d wholly approved of the move, more so when his hand started to play with hers as they ate. Now his fingers were interlocked with hers and his thumb stroked slowly.
The shivers distracted her, she didn’t even look up when the waiter brought the bill and Reaper tossed a black card on the little plate and helped her to her feet and held onto her hand.
“I’m going to be on TV!” she grinned.
Reaper frowned. “On TV? What do you mean?”
“Well, you know the boss is now semi-retired and his daughter took over? She let us know today right as I was finishing that one of her friends works for a news TV station, she does those local people of interest pieces on restaurants and wants to feature the diner! She said she’d love for me to talk about the custom bakes I do.”
Paige hadn’t noticed Reaper’s frown until she stopped talking.
“Isn’t that amazing? I’ve never been on TV before. Let alone a show that goes national.”
He cleared his throat, opening the door for her. “Is t
hat something you really want to do?”
“I think it’d be fun.”
His face looked pained once they were outside, she hadn’t bothered wearing a jacket, so he shrugged out of his and held it out so she could slip her arms down into the leather.
Five minutes into their journey he remained soundless, and Paige couldn’t figure what had gone wrong. Maybe he hadn’t enjoyed their date as much as she had.
“Thank you for dinner, Reaper.”
He grunted. His hand was on her thigh again so she reasoned he couldn’t have had such a bad time. “Did I do something wrong?” She asked and was caught in his stare before he turned back to the road. “Never,” his reply didn’t do much to reassure her.
“It’s just, you turned quiet really quickly. And not the kind of quiet I’m used to from you. This is a new quiet that makes me think you didn’t enjoy our date as much as I’d hoped.”
Suddenly the truck was pulled onto the side of the road and Reaper turned to face her. “I haven’t enjoyed anything this much in a long time, Paige.” His roughened words resonated honesty and his hand brushed aside some of her hair and when his fingers caught the side of her face she shivered at the contact as he gently redirected her gaze to his. It was such a simple thing to say but when was the last time someone had said something so lovely and genuine to her? She didn’t know.
She’d always been an afterthought with her family, someone annoying in their background of self-indulgence.
He restarted the engine, pulled back onto the road and for the rest of the way home his hand palmed her thigh tightly, that wicked thumb brushing up and down and oh, Paige wished he’d just keep going up because she might be full of bread in her belly, but other parts of her were aching… and starved.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Date and a sleepover.” Paige
There’s generally three kinds of guys who take a woman to his home on the first date.
He’s either looking to get a fast lay.